


Collecting Samples

by BooigiBoi



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU, Angst, I honestly have no idea what to tag this??, M/M, Rain, cursing, no shelter sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26048512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BooigiBoi/pseuds/BooigiBoi
Summary: A sudden rainstorm forces Harry and Ron to look for shelter
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ron Weasley
Comments: 6
Kudos: 86





	Collecting Samples

**Author's Note:**

> Why is it that every fic I make turns into angst? If no one else writes Rarry angst, I will.
> 
> Doesn't really matter what year this is set in, maybe 6?

It was autumn. The sky was full of dark thick clouds, and it was a little windy. Leaves were dropping from trees, and the Black Lake was moving along with the wind. Harry and Ron were near the boathouse, by the shore, collecting some water and mud in long test tubes for their herbology homework. They were told to collect bacteria and such from the water for future use. Some students didn't care for the assignment and picked up water from ponds caused by the rain, but Ron, for some reason, had gotten some extra motivation that day, and told Harry they should actually try to do this for real. Maybe he hoped to get some weird small needle head sized creatures that were important for healing or something. Harry obliged, and after school they found themselves at the boathouse.

Harry was kneeling on the sand by the water, rolling up his sleeves and stretching his short arm as far as it could go, dipping it in the cold water. The quickly raised it, cursing a little by how cold the water was. That was one of the test tubes full, 4 to go. 

"Why don't you use your wand, mate?" Ron yelled from not far away, sitting on the stone steps that lead back to the boathouse and the castle. He had a herbology book in his arms, reading it. He was hoping to find something that would help them. Maybe something about what kind of water was the best for really, really small creatures. Harry rose up, put a cork on the test tube, put it in his bag, and shook his wet hand dry. 

"I don't need to do everything with magic, Ron." He answered and took out another test tube. "Besides, we use to do something similar to this when I was in kindergarten. We would go to a nearby river, collect bacteria and tiny water organisms in tubes and look at them under a microscope. It was really fun, actually." He smiled and blushed a little remembering that. One of the rare days in his childhood where he actually had fun and wasn't yelled at. His thoughts were broken by Ron's yelling.

"What's a microscoop?"

Harry laughed, hiding his grin behind his hand. He didn't want to say it, but he liked it when Ron didn't know what every day muggle items were. 

"A microscope, Ron. It helps us look at things that we can't see with a naked eye. Like for example, I can't tell what my skin cells look like, even with glasses." He explained, and knelt down again.

"Ah." Ron hummed, and went back to reading. "What if we take few samples here, and take the rest from like the center of the lake? From what my brain can understand of this total nonsense, we might be able to get cool stuff from further away from the shore."

Harry dipped the tube in water. "It's October, Ron, I don't fancy a dip in this water." He rose and put a cork on the tube. 3 to go.

Ron made a weird sound and stared at Harry. "I'm not gonna make you swim, you pillock." He chuckled, "You think too much like a muggle."

"Well, I was raised by them, wasn't I?" Harry chuckled back and saw Ron blush from embarrassment. "It was a joke, Ron, you didn't hurt my feelings."

"Good." The redhead gave a smile and rose from the steps, putting the book in his bag. "I could levitate the test tubes..." He talked to himself and walked towards Harry, who was drying his arm in his robes. "How about that rock?" He pointed a rock that looked like it was floating in the middle of the lake. It wasn't too far away, but far away enough for a levitating charm probably not working.

Harry shrugged. "Give it a shot, you're better at it anyway." He winked at him. Ron blushed and shook his head knowingly. "Fine, you cheeky git." He stuck out his tongue and pulled out his wand. "Give me a tube." 

Harry pulled one out of his bag and held it. Ron pointed his wand at it. "Wingardium Leviosa."

The tube started floating above Harry's hand, and Ron made it move towards the water. Harry saw it floating above the water and move pretty fast towards the rock. So far so good. 

"I'm impressed, Ron. I know it's just a small glass tube, but levitating it so far away takes talent." Harry exclaimed, and Ron looked at him briefly, almost losing his concentration. The tube fell a little, but Ron managed to get his mind straight and focus on the levitation. Harry apoligised and blushed. 

The tube was almost at the rock, and Ron smiled a little. He was impressed with himself. Just as it was about to touch the rock, the sky went darker than it already was, and they heard loud grumbles and growls from the sky. Ron flinched from the surprise and accidentally dropped the tube in the water.

"Fucking hell!" he cursed, not noticing the rain that had begun. "Just like everything else, I managed to fuck this up too." He continued his cursing, when Harry violently pulled his arm, making him realise the rain the thunder.

"You did your best, Ron, but let's go before it starts raining really heavily." He reassured Ron, grabbed his bag and ran with Ron towards the stone steps.

\---

The boats inside the boathouse that were in the water were moving violently with the water. The weather was awful, as if someone was pouring buckets full of water from the sky. Harry and Ron were sitting against one the walls, looking outside at the rain. 

Ron was cursing like there was no tomorrow. So many different words escaped his mouth that if his mom was there to hear him, he wouldn't be seeing the next Christmas. He was desperately drying his hair, squeezing as much water from his long locks as he could, but it never seemed good enough. When he let go, he had wet strands of hair stuck to his fingers, and he violently shook his hands, trying to get them off. Harry watched him do all this with a side eye, questioning why they hadn't learned the drying spell yet. 

"JUST FUCK ALL THIS!" Ron suddenly hollered and gave up, violently resting his head against the wall, breathing loudly. "Why are the wizard gods against me?"

Harry didn't respond. Ron had claimed he didn't care that much about his hair, that's why he had let it grow pass his shoulders, but over the years it was clear, at least to Harry, that Ron was getting fond of it. He tried to keep it dry during rainy days, he had experimented with hair products, mostly cause his hair seemed to interest Lavender and her friends, and he even let Harry playfully style it during classes. Before that would have been a big no to Ron, but these days he was rather hoping Harry would do it.

It wasn't fun seeing Ron so much in distress. Yes, it was only his hair, but Harry knew it was important to Ron. He was surprised when he heard it wasn't the only problem the redhead had.

"Why do I suck, Harry?" He cried out in frustration, desperately trying to keep his wet hair out of his face. 

"You don't suck, Ron."

"Of course I do, just look at me." 

"Honestly, Ron-"

"I thought it would be a good idea to come here today and do that stupid herbology assignment right. I even picked up a book from the library that Neville recommended to me, but did I understand anything I was reading, of course not, I suck at herbology!"

Harry didn't answer, mostly cause he wasn't sure how. Luckily for him, Ron kept going.

"And then I thought we should try to get samples from away from the shore, oh, even Merlin wouldn't have thought of that brilliant idea!" Suddenly, he rose up and started phasing in front of Harry, while the thunder and rain kept making noise outside.

"I thought I was good enough at levitating to levitate that stupid test tube to that rock, and wouldn't you know it, I dropped it right after it was there! We learn that stupid spell in year one, Harry! Year-fucking-one! I can't even cast a first year spell right! And look at my hair! It's all wet and it's gonna dry weirdly cause we're here, and because of me, we didn't make it to the castle in time, and I look like a bloody pillock, Harry!"

Finally he stopped, and Harry just stared at him, unsure what to do. Ron looked feral, his eyes were wide, staring straight into Harry's, and he was breathing heavily. His hair was messier than before, sticking to his face like glue, and to Harry Ron looked like a seconds away from having a meltdown and tearing all his hair off. They just stared at each other for what felt like hours while the rain hit the boathouse's roof hard.

Suddenly Ron let out a deep sigh and waddled to Harry, dropping down to the floor next to him, bringing his knees to his chest and burying his face. "Bloody hell..." He muttered, and Harry slowly put his arm around him, shooting him.

Again, it was silence between them. Only noise came from the violent weather outside, and the boats hitting each other. Harry watched as the waves danced to the wind, calming him a little. He could hear faint whimpering coming from Ron, but didn't react to it. Ron had done this so many times to Harry, and Harry wanted to do the same to Ron now. Just the two of them, sitting in the boathouse, sheltering themselves from the rain and not saying a word. Comforting.

"Sorry you had to see that..." Ron suddenly said in a faint voice, still hiding his face. Ron sounded genuinely sorry, as if he had done something wrong. Harry shook his head.

"You've seen me throw a tantrum or two before, don't apologise for that." He gently moved his hand up and down Ron's spine, just like Ron had done to him million times before. It helped Harry calm down, and he was certain it would ease Ron's feelings too.

The redhead didn't respond though. He slowly raised his head and turned to look at Harry. He just stared at him with his rich blue eyes, and Harry blushed a little, not knowing what to do.

Then Ron nodded and rested his head on Harry's shoulder, which caused Harry's cheek to become more red. "I'm glad to have you as a friend, Harry." Ron smiled a little, and Harry hummed.

"I'm the lucky one, Ron." He answered, smiling himself. "You always know what to do when I'm feeling down."

Ron gave a weak chuckle. "Someone has to take care of your mental health, mate."

Harry's smile grew at that, and he wanted to say how he wanted to do the same to Ron, but the redhead continued. 

"Let's not talk about this today, I know you're gonna say how awesome and such I am."

"But it's true, Ron, you're not bad at herbology, you didn't do anything wrong today, you dropped the tube cause you flinched by surprise, the castle is far away from here, so it wasn't your fault we didn't make it there, and-"

"Please, Harry." Ron blushed hard at those words and raised his head from Harry's shoulder, moving away from him a little. Harry looked at him, and saw the blushing. He wasn't sure if it was cause he felt embarrassed, or because he wasn't used to hearing such things. Or maybe...

"But you're not a failure or anything like that, Ron." Harry assured the other. "You're... You're awesome. You were able to levitate an object to an impossible distance. It's almost impossible to concentrate on the levitation when you can't see the object clearly."

Ron kept blushing.

"And! Even if you didn't understand the book that well, you understood enough to get samples from further away from the shore. I admit, I don't know if that changed anything, but I still think it was very clever."

"Aha..." Ron hummed and moved his red face away from Harry's view.

"It's not just what happened today why I think you're awesome, Ron. It's everything about you. You're caring, loyal, understanding, funny, courageous, you always remind me that I'm still just a kid and should have fun, you're a master at wizards chess, I think your hair smells like pumpkin and spices, and..." He stopped for a moment to look at Ron, who still had his face away from him. Harry moved closer to him and cupped his face, making him look at him. 

"I... I feel something inside me whenever I hear you laugh. Some nights I kinda wish I get nightmares cause I know you're going to come lay next to me and calm me down and say it's gonna pass. Ron, I think..." 

Harry bit his bottom lip, letting go of Ron's chin. The other didn't move away or say anything. The boats had stopped moving and the sky wasn't flashing anymore. The rain was still going, but now they could barely hear it. It was as if time had stopped.

Harry felt Ron take his hand and hold it, which made him look up at those blue eyes. Ron was still blushing and he gulped, contemplating what to say.

"I wanted to come here today not only cause I got motivation to do my homework, but also cause I wanted to spend some time alone with you. No Hermione or Hagrid or Dumbledore, just the two of us... Sometimes it seems we rarely get to be just together." Ron shrugged and looked at the ground. Harry blushed hearing all this, or blushed more if he wasn't already red in the face.

"I've missed spending time with you too, Ron. I-I like it just the two of us." He smiled at Ron, who looked up at him, smiling too.

"Harry?" He asked nervously, gripping the other's hand tighter.

"Yes?"

"It's Hogsmeade weekend this weekend, and I know Hermione can't come, cause she wants to study for a test she has in runes, so um... Would you like to, uh..."

Before Ron could finish, Harry already had his answer. "Yes, yes, I'd love to."

Ron smiled, still holding Harry's hand. 

Then, as if they knew what the other was about to do, they leaned forward and kissed. It was quick, only few seconds, but it satisfied them both, making them laugh afterward. 

"When we go there, you can tell me all about the microscoop."

"I will." Harry smiled wider than ever, not even caring to correct Ron.


End file.
